Burdens & Benefits
by Mr. BC
Summary: Austin uncharacteristically loses his temper when a caustic, chemically imbalanced arena employee insults him before a concert and the ensuing argument potentially leads to big trouble. Can Austin's sudden rage be harnessed?
1. An Unfortunate Night

**A/N:** I do not own Austin & Ally or the characters. It all belongs to Disney. This fic is directly based on my favorite _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ episode "Turtle Temper." So everybody maybe somewhat out of character. Hope you all enjoy it and please review with feedback. It'd be appreciated.

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It was a few minutes before Austin was to go on stage for a local charity concert. The previous musician had finished up and it would take a little bit before the crews would be ready for Austin's performance. Backstage in a quiet blue room, Trish was looking over the event's program while Dez was having a disagreement with the water cooler. Austin was quietly meditating on the couch to get his nerves settled. Even though he was a seasoned veteran at performing, there was always the prospect of something going wrong so he relaxed himself.

Ally took this moment and playfully poked the back of Austin's neck. He was somewhat startled, but shrugged it off and closed his eyes again. Ally then poked at his rib cages and Austin grabbed her hands and pulled her under him tickling her in the sides as a repercussion for her playfulness. As you might expect, she laughed loudly and squirmed on the couch as her flailing leg accidentally knocked over a purple vase.

Trish didn't exactly approve of this banter at this particular moment. "Guys, when a rock star is about to go on stage, he's supposed to be mentally preparing himself."

"Sorry, Trish, I'll giggle quieter," Ally replied. It turned out she couldn't as Austin then made her lie on her stomach on the couch and he lay on top of her ready for more tickling.

"Say it," he playfully ordered.

"Austin, get into meditative form!" Trish scolded.

"Not till Ally says it," he answered putting his fingers near her waist and Trish put her hand to her face in annoyance.

"Austin is the best singer in the world," Ally said between giggles while sounding desperate for Austin to get off her.

"And…" He started lightly scratching her waist.

"And he can't perform a song without me."

"And…" He then put his fingers to the back of her neck and tickled.

"And we'll always be a team and there's no way we can make it in the music world without each other."

"AND…" He then put up her arms and reached for her exposed armpits.

"And in the history of music, there will never be a better…"

"Guys, enough!" Trish finally burst out, putting a stop to the whole thing as it was their time in a few minutes.

"OK, Trish, whatever you say." He got off of Ally as she breathed a big sigh of relief. He gathered his things and got ready to go on stage, walking towards the door with everyone. "Do you have the guest list for the after party?"

"I have it on my phone so I can just plug it into a computer and print it out."

"And I've ordered all the 255 pizzas that everybody who attends can scarf down," Dez chimed in, earning looks of bewilderment from his friends.

"Dez, there are only 80 people coming so we don't need that many," Austin replied. "And how exactly are that many pizzas going to be paid for?

"We can just use the ticket revenue to cover it."

"What's been going on in here?" a voice suddenly said. The team turned around and saw an older arena employee named Jeremy had walked in to get them onstage. "What are you playing tardiness?"

While somewhat taken aback by this, Dez tried to reason with him. "No, sir. We're just…"

But he was cut off as Jeremy looked over their shoulders at the broken vase and got angry. "Which one of you juvenile callibraids broke my wife's vase?"

Austin certainly didn't appreciate this. "Callibraids?"

"I don't even know what that means," Dez quietly said scratching his head.

"Me neither, but I don't like it." Austin reached into his pocket to grab his phone and call arena management to report him, but Ally grabbed his arm and reminded him he was going to be introduced in two minutes.

"Let's just go." The four of them walked out the door and started to head toward the stage with Austin being the last one out.

"That's right, you blondie pinhead," Jeremy called back at him. "Listen to your mommy."

Needless to say, Austin was incensed by this. He stopped in his tracks growling and while shaking with rage, he pointed his guitar at him. "Hey! Watch it buddy!"

"Oh no! I didn't know you had diamond earrings on your guitar!" Jeremy taunted, looking at a shiny decoration that Ally had put on the soundboard.

"Diamond earrings?" Feeling blood rise to his face, Austin started charging at Jeremy with his three friends trying to hold him down. "I'm not going to take this from some hairy incompetent dwarf with a crew cut!"

"You calling me ugly? Seen a mirror lately country boy?"

Ally was pleading with her partner to cool it as she attempted to restrain him with Dez and Trish. "Austin, don't!"

Jeremy wasn't done mocking the blonde pop star. "You want a piece of me?"

"When I'm done, a piece of you is all that's going to be left!" he yelled back at him.

"Yeah well, if you'll excuse me, I got a job to do." With that, Jeremy walked away and out of sight. Austin dropped his pursuit of him and let himself go limp into his friends' arms. Unfortunately, some fans in the stands had a view of this incident and caught it on their phones.

"Way to blow your composure, Austin," Dez chided. "Just get on stage."

Austin was announced over the loudspeaker and he stormed onstage. The incident was still very much on his mind and during the half hour he sang his songs, he shook and his voice quavered. The crowd noticed this and showed their displeasure with him. After he was finished, the crowd only gave him a polite applause instead of a standing ovation. Ally, Dez and Trish walked up on stage to console him. Jeremy was off to one side and had recorded Austin's poor performance on his Droid.

"Keep going, country music banjos!" he called to them. "This is pure money!"

"We're not banjos, you idiot!" Austin was close to apoplexy by this point.

"Yeah and it's not country music," Dez called back, not aware he wasn't helping. "It's pop music."

Trish had noticed a bigger problem. "Guys, people got us on video!"

"Not for long they don't!" Austin snatched the mike and gave the crowd an ultimatum: "Everybody who has a video running, stop it and delete it NOW!"

He noticed Jeremy starting to run towards the exits with his phone. "I'm going to make a fortune off of his bad acts!"

Ally had seen enough and while she was angry with how her dear friend had been treated, she decided to put a stop to everything. "This night's over, let's just head home."

Austin would not let it go even as his friends walked to the door. "Wait, we have to find that guy and break his phone and his face!" Everybody had headed to the exits and Jeremy was nowhere to be seen. He let out a very angry groan and stormed over to where his friends were. If this night wasn't the absolute most horrific night in Austin Moon's life, it had to be ridiculously high on the list.

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A/N: More to come.


	2. Professional Help

The next day at school, Austin had somewhat cooled off, but not entirely. Before lunch, the four friends had a scheduled group session called Student Solutions with one of the school counselors. This was one of their bi-weekly electives and they chose to have it together.

"Not only did Austin bomb his concert," Dr. Lombardozzi assessed to the group, "but his antics got caught on video."

"Doctor, he was the angriest nastiest guy you ever met," Austin answered. "And you should have heard the insults he was throwing at us, they were so insulting!"

"Oh, well you didn't tell me he said mean things. That makes a lot of sense."

"So he had to blow everything for us," Ally added. She was a little upset that he lost his composure and she felt that made everybody look bad.

"You know not everybody's going to like you, Austin," the doctor said. "Especially now that your music has gone global and anything you do can be put on YouTube and go viral."

"I can speak from experience, Doc," Trish added and peering at Ally, thinking of the "Wash the Windows" dance video.

"You don't know what he has going on in his own background, guys," the doctor reasoned. "He maybe stressed, disappointed about something or even have some kind of emotional difficulty."

"Look, we know where he works," Austin answered. "All we need to do is find him and search his pockets until the phone shows up."

"I don't think you want to do that, Austin," Dez replied. "There are laws against strip searches and..."

Austin immediately sneered at his friend, indicating he wasn't in the mood for his needless processing of silly information.

"Anger can bring out the worst in a person and it can lead a person to a tarnished reputation," Ally reminded him.

"I never thought of it that way."

The doctor decided it was time for some role therapy. "Austin, stand up."

Austin did as he was told and then moved to the center of the room. Dr. Lombardozzi then had the other three move to different corners of the room and handed them all a bunch of soft sponge balls to toss at Austin. They were soft enough that even if they hit something in his office, they couldn't knock anything down and break it.

"Evade the sponge balls," the doctor said.

Austin smirked and nodded. "No problem."

"Go ahead guys." One by one, Ally, Dez and Trish threw a ball in Austin's direction and each one he got out of the way of with a small smile on his face.

"Alright." The four turned towards the doctor. "Again, except this time, Ally, Dez and Trish, insult Austin."

"Wait," Ally said. "Insult him?"

"Yep."

"And he can't fight back?"

"Nope."

The smile on Austin's face dropped to a skeptical look.

"I'm feeling good about this one," Dez said to everybody.

"Go ahead guys," Dr. Lombardozzi said giving the signal.

Dez gave a little provocative chuckle before launching a sponge ball in Austin's direction. "You sing like a flu-ridden pelican!"

Austin ducked out of the way of the ball, but he objected to the remark. "I do not!"

Then it was Ally's turn to taunt her partner and throw a ball at him. "And you're always complaining. Poor me. Nobody understands me."

"But you don't understand what…" Before Austin could turn around, the ball Ally threw hit him in the back "HEY!"

"And..." Trish had to think for a minute about what to say. "Oh, you don't watch your feet when dancing on stage while singing." Her first ball nailed Austin in the leg. "And you're ugly!" Her other hit him in the backside.

Dez was having a lot of fun with this. "And stinky!"

"Stop it!" By now, Austin's annoyance was melting away his ability to block everything out and he was subconsciously letting every ball nail him from every direction as his friends mocked him.

"Aw, you talk so tough," Ally teased as she could see steam coming out of his ears. "But you're just a little scaredy cat inside."

"Who needs his bottle?" Trish picked up a ball on the floor and tossed it at him.

"And his diaper changed?" Dez hit him in the back of the head

"What's the matter, Austin?" Ally sweetened her voice to get further under his skin. "Gonna cry?"

"I… am not… GOING TO CRY!" The last of the balls hit him in the head and he knelt to the floor shaking with fury.

"This is so much fun," Dez quietly said to himself.

"You know what, forget this." Austin took a ball and spiked it although that was hardly an outlet for him because of how light the ball was. "This is stupid."

The bell rang indicating the period was over and it was time for lunch. The four cleaned up the mess created by the balls, put them away and got their stuff.

"Austin, just remember what I told you earlier," Dr. Lombardozzi said before they all headed to lunch. "Not everybody's going to like you or get along with you. Your concerts can and tours only be considered successes if you block everything of that nature out."

Austin thought for a moment about how he was going to handle his inner rage. He decided he must confront Jeremy and get rid of the video that he filmed him with.

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**A/N:** More to come. Please R&R. Some feedback would be helpful.


	3. Confrontations & Consequences

That night, the four friends went down to the arena where the concert was the night before to retrieve the phone that Jeremy filmed him with. Austin wanted to set things straight with him even as his friends were unsure about what he was going to do. They knew the sight of Jeremy would get Austin's blood boiling again.

Jeremy was cleaning up the concourse level while talking on the phone with somebody. "I swear these teenage country delinquents are bad influences to people who look up to role models. You can't tell me…"

He turned around and saw the quartet facing him. "I'll call you back." He hung up and reverted to his nasty mood towards them. "Lay one finger on me, country singers and I'm calling the newspapers."

"We're not going to hurt you," Austin replied through clenched teeth, doing everything in his power to stay civil. He was front and center and his friends were nervously behind him watching.

"Then what do you want, nut?"

"We got off on the wrong foot yesterday. Some things were said and, well, we would just like that video back." Jeremy looked unconvinced at Austin's desire to make things right given his body language and tone of voice. Ally nudged him to say something else. _"Please."_

"What are you going to give me for it?"

"Give you for it?"

"Well, I figure I've got you in a corner here so you've got to put something in my pocket." Jeremy took out his phone and waved it in Austin's face.

"I'll put something in your pocket." Austin released some emotion by raising his voice. "Like a two-fisted knuckle sandwich that's going to taste like…"

Seeing something bad was about to happen, Ally stepped in and saved the day. "OK, thank you, Austin. I will take over. So what are you looking for?" she calmly asked as Austin crossed his arms and pouted to the side like a five-year-old boy that had been scolded.

"How about a million dollars?"

Ally didn't like this, but she wasn't about to make a fuss. "We don't have a million dollars."

"We do have a Ryan Tannehill signed football that could be worth a trade," Dez spoke up, again not realizing he was not helping at all.

"I can make myself a media star with this video. And if you won't pay up, I'll hold onto it until somebody else does."

"THAT'S IT!" Austin had had enough and he grabbed Jeremy and forcefully pushed him up against the wall. "Hand over the video or so help me, I'll kick your hairy butt all the way to South Carolina!"

Something caught Trish's attention to the side. "Guys, there are families there."

"Austin, stop!" Austin was just about to sucker punch Jeremy when he looked to his left. There were three sets of families with three kids each on a field trip of the arena. The moms all gasped and clapped their hands over their mouths while the kids hyperventilated.

"I can't believe it," one of the moms let out. "Austin Moon throws cheap shots at poor innocent old men?"

"I guess he's not the kind of role model we thought he was after all."

"Guys, I'm sorry you saw this," Austin spoke up. "But it's really not what you think."

"Austin, I think you should go over there and make it right with those kids," Trish leaned in and whispered.

Austin agreed and let go of Jeremy and apologized to the kids and the mothers for having seen him lose his cool and promised them free tickets to a future concert which they accepted. After the families had gone, he turned around and saw Jeremy texting somebody and he immediately lost it again, thinking he was posting the video.

"Oh no, you don't!" he shouted and sprinted towards him.

"Austin, what are you doing?" Ally called out. "Get back over here!"

Ignoring his partner, Austin nearly came to blows with his adversary. "We've got unfinished business! You give me that phone right now!"

Just as a bloody nose was about to be administered, one of the sons from the families a minute earlier came back.

"Austin, I forgot to ask..." He saw how furious he was and ran back to his mom hyperventilating.

"Well, if you banjo pluckers don't want to buy my video," Jeremy teased Austin when the boy was out of sight. "Maybe they will."

"Austin, get away from him!" Trish called as his friends ran towards him to try to break it up.

"Listen, you idiot," Austin chastised and lowered his voice. "Country singers do not play banjos and we're not country music singers!"

Dez and Trish grabbed ahold of Austin, yanked him away from Jeremy and held him before any damage could be done. Jeremy made his escape out the door to his car.

"So long, blondie!" he called out as his shift was over for the day.

"Nice going, Austin," Trish scolded.

"What did I do?"

"What did you do?!" Dez was incredulous at his friend. "You alienated some young fans because you threatened somebody! You could have made it right with them, but thanks to your temper, which you've never had before and I don't know where it came from, the guy with the tape could be in the hands of the police!"

"Or worse," Ally added. "A million fans all over the world seeing how different you are."

"I think it's time to go home and write some songs for a new singer," Trish said to Ally and Dez.

"What, you're just going to leave me behind?" Austin asked.

"Yes we are, Austin," Ally answered. "You gotta control this new-found temper of yours. Until you do, it's going to be hard to trust you or be around you."

The three walked back to their respective houses while Austin groaned in disbelief and walked to get himself a cup of coffee before going back home himself. Even he couldn't answer how a person could cause him to get this angry.

* * *

**A/N:** More to come. As I warned, people are out of character, and that is the case here with Austin. Watch the TMNT episode "Turtle Temper" to see the parallels.


	4. Parental Help

Austin had gone upstairs to his room to cool off and to help confide his feelings, he spoke to his pet hamster Rocky.

"Who do Ally, Dez and Trish think they are? So what if I lost my temper today?" He paced back and forth around his room. "I'm still the brains behind Team Austin and that man gave me every right to be mad.

He sat down next to the hamster cage and dropped a carrot in. "You agree with me, don't you, Rocky? Nibble on your carrot if you agree with me." Rocky took a bite out of it. "Yeah, I thought so."

"I understand what you're going through, Austin," his dad said poking his head into the room, startling Austin. Dr. Lombardozzi had called his parents and alerted them of the situation.

"Seriously, you gotta knock or something!" he let out in a gratuitous manner.

"Austin, let me tell you a story."

"Dad, I'm really not in the mood for a story," Austin pleaded, softening his tone.

Mike turned to the hamster cage and dropped a carrot in there. "Rocky, nibble on your carrot if you're in the mood for a story." Rocky again ate what was given him, sucking it to Austin. "All right then. At the start of my junior year of high school, I met a beautiful young girl..."

"Oh hey, is it that late?" Austin turned to his bed and got up to go to the bathroom and put his pajamas on.

"Sit!"

Austin groaned as he sat back down and Mike started his story:_** "Her name was Caroline and I fell head over heels for her. We spent a lot of time together at the Valentine's Dance and prom and we acted like a couple throughout the school year. That same summer, I had lost my dear best friend in a car accident and I was very much in mourning. She and her family were on the condolence committee and sent me cards. When we got together that summer, we shared a kiss during a sweet moment and I was certain we were a couple. But a few weeks later, in the middle of a conversation, she said she didn't like me that way. I was absolutely heartbroken and livid and I felt that course of action could not go unanswered. When school started up again in the fall for my senior year, her exact words to me were: "I'm really sorry for hurting your feelings. I didn't want to hurt you, but I wanted to be honest with you too." That only incensed me even more and I cursed and screamed at her as loudly as I could in front of both the principal and the superintendent. She called me a bad name afterwards for embarrassing her with that eruption and she ended her association with me. And two weeks after that, Caroline got together with somebody else from school who was far less mature than I was and had bad manners and she called him her boyfriend."**_

Austin couldn't believe what he was hearing as his dad finished the story still sounding somewhat aggrieved and bitter even though it was a while ago and he was happily married now. The girl provoked him and he didn't blame him at all for losing his temper.

"But it wasn't your fault," he softly said. "She badly messed with your already full mind and heavy heart. She doesn't deserve to be in your life for that. How could you not have exploded like that? You had had no choice."

Mike's eyebrows came up. "No choice? I could have chosen to take a deep breath and speak to her about my feelings and how much it hurt. But I let her actions anger me and I let my emotions become a weapon." He paused and put a hand on his son's shoulder. "That was the choice I made. What choice will you make?"

Austin sighed and thought for a moment to himself.

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**A/N:** More to come. Please review. :)


	5. Setting Things Right

The next morning, Ally, Trish and Dez were back at Sonic Boom waiting for people who inquired about a new apprentice singer opening on Team Austin. It killed Ally to not have Austin with her, but she decided it was all business and it had to get done.

"Got the candidates lined up?" she asked Trish as she sat at the piano in the practice room. Trish merely nodded.

"Are we really gonna do this without Austin?" Dez asked with a puppy-like voice.

Ally was quite annoyed by that, but kept her cool. "I'm confident anybody who gets chosen can handle stress."

"I don't know, It just seems like something's missing."

Ally and Trish just looked at each other and shook their heads in disgust as they prepared to interview their first potential apprentice. As they did, they overheard two men standing by the downstairs having a conversation that caught their attention.

"If Austin is really been this out of control," one of them said. "What should the right course of action be? If he really lay a hand on Jeremy, I believe that's grounds for a serious lawsuit."

"And Jimmy Starr will have to be notified," the other replied as they grabbed their headsets that they bought from Ally's dad and started to walk out the door. "We do have to remember that Jeremy does have severe bipolar disorder and perhaps some kind of encephalopathy as a result, so we can't always believe everything he says."

"Austin's going to be charged?" Trish couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"He didn't even hurt him," Ally reacted. "We gotta do something to stop this."

"Let's finish our interview first," Trish suggested, but Ally didn't care for it.

"We have to go. The arena is a short walk so we can take care of it when we get back."

Trish reluctantly agreed, but had to ask, "What's encephalopathy?"

"I have no idea," Ally answered.

"I think I know," Dez chimed in preparing to come with them. "I think it means when your brain get messed with from an illness or injury of some kind. I've seen it happen to athletes all the time."

Trish looked it up on her phone and seemed somewhat surprised that he was right on the money. "Wow, Dez. I'm impressed," she said rather sarcastically.

* * *

Jeremy had finished his shift and was about ready to head to his mailbox to pick up his weekly check. As he did, Ally, Dez and Trish blocked his path and acted as if they were going to take matters into their own hands.

"We're not going to accept this nonsense from you anymore," Trish called out.

Predictably, Jeremy was in no mood for an argument. "What about my check?"

"Shh!" Ally was concerned about officers coming to take them away.

"Don't 'shh' me!" he snapped back. "I ain't leaving here without my check. I worked hard this week and I'm entitled to my money."

Dez face-palmed and shook his head. "Remind me again why we have to confront this guy?"

A light beeping sound and walkie-talkie transmission could suddenly be heard behind them "I don't like the sound of that," Ally answered.

"This is all your fault," Jeremy accused a person behind their shoulders, raising his voice. "I'm going to see that you never make it in the music industry ever!"

The three friends turned around and saw Austin come towards them with a few guards who were there to take Jeremy, not Team Austin, away. He had told the guards and arena management about how Jeremy had provoked him and how he caused him public embarrassment.

"Wow, I don't think that guy could go any lower than he already had," he said to his friends. "I heard everything he said."

"Austin!" Ally squealed and came running to hug him. "I think you've been ostracized long enough. Care to rejoin the team?"

He gave her a big smile. "Seriously? I'd love to."

"Hey country music banjo!" Jeremy called out past the security guards. "I can't believe you got me fired!"

"Hey depression-induced maniac," he called back "I can't believe I didn't do this earlier."

"Where am I going to find work now?"

"That's your problem, not mine."

"Oh, that's real cute, blondie moron!" Unlike before, Austin absorbed this and took a deep breath as the words went in one ear and out the other. "You think you can disrespect me like that and get away with it?" The guards took him out of the arena and handed him his termination papers.

"I know a real awful staffing agency that would be a good fit for him," he quietly said to his friends.

"I'm proud of you, Austin," Trish said, patting him on the back. "I just wanna say..."

"You guys don't have to apologize."

"I wasn't going to."

Ally was happy, but felt the need to poke him. "Yeah, Austie, not bad for a flu-ridden pelican."

A big grin came back up on his face as he grabbed her by the waist, picked her up and plopped her on a table for some more tickling.

"OK, Austin is the best singer in the world!" she pleaded.

Austin reached for her heels and took them off. "AND..."

"And he can't perform a song without me!"

Trish and Dez just looked at each other and shook their heads, just happy that things were back to normal.

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**A/N:** Thank you for reading this story. And a shoutout to honesthannah for all her feedback. :)


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